And any chance we can sticky this?

EvilRedEye wrote:

I don't like the emulated games rule. I feel it needs an exception for games first released in Europe this year through emulation (for example, Trials of Mana, Darius for Mega Drive, etc.).

Yeah, that's fine. I only really meant it to cover rereleases. Will clarify.

Hi.

I’d just like to add that 1st Feb 2020 is my birthday so I should get double points or some shit

I cannot be remotely fucked.

Not even with the power of the cloud?

b0r1s wrote:

I’d just like to add that 1st Feb 2020 is my birthday so I should get double points or some shit

Well 2nd Feb 2020 is my 40th birthday so fuck you Boris I get quadruple points

For GotY, so far my list is:

Sekiro
Slay The Spire
DMC5

Still playing/might play:

Astral Chain
Sayonara Wild Hearts
Untitled Goose Game

So you turned 40 recently too then?

Will no doubt tinker with this incessantly, but here we go then (for some categories that's all I got):

Game of the Year (reviews dumped from the 52 games thread, when I wasn't sure on any particular order obvs):

1. Supermarket Shriek

More than just a pleasant surprise, this was one of the best games I've played this year.  The rather odd premise is as follows: You control a man and a goat sitting in a shopping trolley, and movement is entirely governed by shrieking.  The analogue triggers make your characters scream, which rotates the trolley either left or right, and holding both triggers makes the cart go forward.  That's it, and it's one of the most perfect, pure gaming control schemes in recent memory.  With practice you could get obscenely good at this game, would love a forum comp but I'd presumably have to pay anyone to play it.  Hey ho.  Your job is to guide the trolley through pun-laden supermarket obstacle courses in as brief a time as possible.  Occasionally you'll have to collect items en route to the goal, or win a head-to-head, or smash cans of baked beans to maximise your score, but it's mostly just a question of whether or not you can make it to the end.  

Progression is gated behind an overly strict star system.  Between one and three stars are dished out for a successful run, you'll pretty much need two or more on every stage in order to see the late game, and some of the three star requirements are damn tricky.  It's a tough game, extremely so in places, but I'm glad I pushed through.  I can hurtle through the earlier stages now, thanks to the superb handling model and the fact that the game demands constant improvement for success.  Forget o0o Ascension Muzzy, this is a far better game.  [9]



2. Untitled Goose Game

Nothing but love from me.  Played this with my daughter and it effortlessly usurps the excellent Donut County as our second best pass-the-pad experience of the year (Wandersong is unassailable).  Everything from your character's ThugLife swagger to the village itself is absolutely on point.  Of course the final area is 
...how beautifully apt.  The puzzles are fun to solve and the penny drop moment never left me feeling short changed.  Visuals are terrific and the scallywag goose is a joy to waddle in and out of trouble with.  It's not a long game but it's not as short as I'd feared; I'd happily pay for dlc areas going forward as I'd very much like some more of the same please. One of the most pleasant surprises of this or any year.  [9]



3. FutureGrind

A Thursday punt pays off at last.  £1.52 this cost me, and as it came out in January, according to Google, it's game of the sodding year.  It's a course based auto runner where you grind on (or on the underside of) rails , only touching them with a wheel of the corresponding colour.  You can double or triple jump, depending on your grind mech (?), and spin the craft forwards and backwards.  That's it, the rest is just built around the near perfect basics.  At first you have to try to get through the track unscathed, then additional paramaters are added (don't touch the purple rails, for example).  The progression system doesn't give you much leeway, you'll mostly need to complete all three challenges per stage to move on.  This would be annoying in most games but I was up for doing that anyway - because it's fun - so it gets a pass.  Combine Unirally, Trials, Colour Guardians, Bit.Trip.Runner, Thumper and Olli Olli and you've got a game better than most of the other ones mentioned in this sentence.  It's constantly tricky but the tasks are always doable, even when it feels overwhelming practice will see you through as although it's mostly skill based, and can be played as such, memorisation can give you an edge eventually.  I can't recommend this highly enough, would've happily paid full whack for it. [8]



4. Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the Necrodancer

I wasn't completely up for the Zeldafication of Necrodancer going in, having bounced off the original pretty brutally on Vita, but positive reviews and irresistible allure of 2D Hyrule reeled me in.  After a shaky start - I considered throwing in the towel a couple of times in the first 90 mins - this gradually revealed itself to be one of the best games of the year.  The learning curve is steep, but the difficulty on the whole is quite forgiving.  More on that later.  Having limited knowledge of how it works didn't seem to help me as I still felt like I'd been chucked in at the deep end with iron boots instead of flippers.  If you refuse to be overwhelmed (having just paid £20 for it helps) the basics start to make sense after a dozen or so restarts.  Then the addictiveness rapidly sets in.  I polished this off in four evenings, so it joins a very small list of roguelikes I've finished (Enter the Breach and.....ummm).  Instant travel takes the sting out of most of the things I don't particularly like about the genre, although I may have been lucky by finding the required item early on.  

I quite like rhythm games, not that I've played more than a generous handful over the years, but the genre crossover thing works extremely well.  Marginal dumbing down of the Necrodancer template coupled with how deftly they've bolted it to the Zelda franchise stands as a genuinely impressive achievement.  It really gets its claws in, with very few missteps, and even threatens to usurp Mario Rabbids as the king of unlikely third party spin-offs.  I'm not one for replaying, but it'd certainly withstand multiple runs as the layout changes with every new save file.  

A few minor negatives: The bosses are a highlight, but they're so easy to defeat they manage to feel like a bit of a joke in the end.  In fact, once you've got the hang of it and know the location of a fairy cave/witch hut or two, you don't really need to die at all if you're careful (in a continued niceness concession the red elixier even kicks in upon death rather than forcing you to chug it in time).  The spear trumps all close range weapons, and pretty much negated their usefulness for me.  Perhaps that was just my play style, but it felt OP.  The *minor spoiler* character swapping is mostly redundant, and after the initial hour or so your diamond stash is too.  That's about it though, excellent game and a very welcome surprise.  Plus it may well be the niftiest looking Zelda game of all time.  £22.49 is maybe a bit much (a straight playthrough took me 6.5hrs), it feels like there's a there's a touch of first party News Feed Highlight tax added on there, but absolutely worth grabbing at the first sniff of a discount.  In with a minor shout for GotY. [8]



5. The Outer Wilds

Not to be confused with The Outer Worlds, despite the fact that it looks like both sets of developers did precisely that when naming their wares.  A truly remarkable gaming experience that deserves to be pushed into the limelight when the end of year lists appear.  Part of the reason I'm typing this in my pants at home is the fact that I was up playing it at 3am and I've ended up chucking a good old fashioned sickie.  

Taking elements of the narrative FPS types (I'm fed up with referring to them as 'walking sims'), Majora's Mask and No Man's Sky, it's a laid back intergalactic episode Treasure Hunt where information gradually gleaned through exploration is key to unravelling the mysteries of the galaxy.  I've admired NMS from afar, but I'd rather inhale infinite helmetfulls of specefarts than actually participate in its proc gen quintillion worlds shtick.  Despite having no desire to play it, it's one of those games that makes me wish I wasn't me so I'd have a chance of enjoying it, y'know?  Enter The Outer Wilds, which is meticulously designed to within an inch of its life.  It only contains a handful of planets, each of which contains pertinent information that can be discovered in an order decided by the player.  The information gradually makes sense of the interplanetary goings on and will eventually guide you toward the endgame.  Here's the rub: playtime exists in a 22-minute loop, where everything you've interacted with resets once the sun goes supernova.  The ship's log acts as Guy Pearce's chest, thankfully, so every tidbit you discover is locked into your on-board computer.  There's very little hand holding so it was more than a little overwhelming for me at first, given that I usually focus on games that could be labelled 'Action' on the corner of a Master System cart.  The controls keep it grounded to an extent; it's a game I enjoyed playing but the fundamentals aren't much cop - it's a first person narrative type with added manoeuvrability, so the mechanics won't win prizes - but that's not why you'll take this particular trip and it's all fit for purpose.  

I don't want to reveal any more of its workings and intricacies as discovery is key to the experience, but at the same time I feel like a few paragraphs doesn't bang the drum enough.  Top tier indie gaming, credits have rolled and it's still in my head [8]. o/ @FranticPea



Best sound Design

1. Ape Out



2. The Outer Wilds



3. Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the Necrodancer



Best visual Design

1. Katana Zero



2. Ape Out



3. Gato Roboto



Best writing

1. The Outer Wilds
2. Katana Zero
3.

Best character

1. The Goose (the GOAT)






2. The Ape
3. The Goat

Best ongoing game released before 2019 (anything that received further support, a major expansion/update etc. this year)

1. Mario Tennis Aces

Best game you played this year that didn't come out this year

1. Statik (PSVR)

(apologies to Monster Boy)

Game of the Decade

1. Trials Evolution
2. Hollow Knight
3. Shovel Knight
4. Super Meat Boy
5. Hotline Miami
6. Fire Emblem Awakening
7. Mario 3D World
8. Astro Bot
9. Ori in the Blind Forest
10. Fez

It's really not GotY

Desperate to do other parts and write them up, but can't really until 3 other games get released this year.

Ape out. Love it.

It's the bottom two.

Does the animation of goose game feed into “visual design”